Warriors Clear Chalk on NBA West Odds

The Golden State Warriors have won two NBA championships and averaged 69 wins over the past three seasons. General manager Bob Myers got Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Zaza Pachulia re-signed and improved bench depth by adding free agents Nick Young and Omri Casspi.

The San Antonio Spurs are trying to get younger as the average age of their 19-man training camp roster is 27. However, three of their five starters are over the age of 30 and Tony Parker’s injury replacement at point will either be 29-year-old Patty Mills or 21-year-old Dejounte Murray, who only started eight games last season.

Still, the Spurs deserve the benefit of the doubt as coach Gregg Popovich continues to squeeze all the talent out of his players to the tune of 20 consecutive trips to the playoffs and 18 consecutive 50-win seasons. If anybody can shock the Warriors, it’s probably Popovich and company. The Spurs’ Western title futures are at +750 a week before the season tips.

The Oklahoma City Thunder’s “Big Three” has evolved from Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden to Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony over the past five years. The latter two, acquired in offseason trades, create more balance on an offense that featured one-man-band and Mr. Triple Double Westbrook last season.

OKC’s one-dimensional offense was exposed in the 2017 playoffs as the Thunder were eliminated in the first round. George should also improve a defense that allowed nearly 106 points per game. The addition of Melo and George improved the Thunder’s NBA Championship odds from +6600 to +1200, but they still have to dethrone the Warriors and for that reason they’re +750 to win the West.

Rockets, T-Wolves in Second Tier of Futures

While the Thunder’s futures improved, the Houston Rockets’ dipped despite the offseason acquisition of Chris Paul. It’ll be interesting to see how the Rockets’ defense – which ranked 26th in scoring defense – performs after moving stopper Patrick Beverley to add two-way player Paul. Houston checks in at +1000 to win the West.

The sexiest longshot to emerge out of the conference are the Minnesota Timberwolves (+1600 to win the West). The franchise acquired Jimmy Butler from the Bulls to create their own “Big Three” alongside Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Possibly lost in the glitter and gleam of the Butler deal was Ricky Rubio departing and Jeff Teague arriving to add a veteran presence at the point.

However, it’ll take some work to make a Western Conference Finals leap as the Wolves only won 31 games in 2016-17 and missed the playoffs by 10 games.